A New Graphic Novel from First Second.

It’s one kid versus an entire world full of monsters.
And the monsters don’t stand a chance!

When Battling Boy’s father (a warrior god) drops him on a world infested with bloodthirsty monsters, he leaves his son with a magic credit card, a trunk full of enchanted t-shirts, and instructions not to come home until he’s liberated the planet from its plague of monsters. It’s a big job, and Battling Boy is pretty sure he’s completely unprepared. But if he fails, there’s no one else who can save the world.
Pope’s first graphic novel for kids, Battling Boy presents this generation’s newest superhero.

"Paul Pope's delightful and original Battling Boy is the adventure of the year!" — Jeff Smith, Eisner Award-winning author of Bone

"Full of energy, precision, and pure kick— not to be missed." — Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies

"In Battling Boy, Pope has spun a smashingly beautiful adventure about a not-so-powerful boy-god sent down from the higher dimensions to save a crumbling city from the monsters that afflict it. Rapturously inked and drawing upon what feels like the entire tradition of pulp storytelling, Battling Boy is a thunderclap of a book--a kaleidoscopic mash-up of the highest order where kaiju mix it up with science heroes, and where a girl named Aurora takes up her fallen father's jet-pack (and his weapons) and nearly steals the whole show. Friends, this book is a number one stunner and the second installment cannot come soon enough." — Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“A new generation superhero.” – Entertainment Weekly

Paul Pope is the New York Times bestselling author illustrator behind the fiercely beloved comics The One Trick Rip-Off, Batman Year 100, Heavy Liquid, and 100%. A master of gritty sci-fi epics, he’s known for genre-bending storytelling and frenetic, stylish artwork. Paul Pope’s art has been featured in places as diverse as LucasArts, Diesel Industries, and Cartoon Network, and DKNY, where he’s designed a clothing line.

Widely considered to be one of the best and most influential cartoonists
today, Paul Pope’s comics storytelling has its roots in the classic superhero
stories he read as a child, especially the work of Jack Kirby, who he
counts as a particularly strong inspiration. Pope’s love of science fiction
springs from his lifetime devotion to the classic stories of Asimov and
Bradbury — and the epic storytelling of Star Wars.

At age 25, he embarked on a career creating comics for the Japanese manga
publisher Kodansha, living and working in Tokyo — making him the American author with the longest running original comics created directly for the Japanese market.

His comics have since reflected the effortless pacing, breathless emotional storytelling, and widespread accessibility that the manga form is so well known for,
whilst retaining an aesthetic that is truly Pope’s own.

The protégé of Moebius, the legendary grand master of the French comics industry, Pope’s current work integrates all these influences into a heady concoction
with a uniquely American sensibility.

Pope has won three Eisner Awards, and his short comic strip Strange Adventures won the coveted National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award. In 2010, Pope was recognized as a Master Artist by the American Council of the Arts.